Doomed by Ben Johnson (recent past President of the Vermont State AFL-CIO and American Federation of Teachers unions) I support Right to Work. Nationwide in the private sector, in the public sector, in any other sectors that unions…
Largely because the New York labor code authorizes and promotes forced union dues and fees in K-12 schools and other public workplaces, teacher union bigwig Michael Mulgrew (pictured) was able to rake in a higher salary last year than New York…
Garden State Gov. Chris Christie, who is currently one of the many Republican politicians running for their party’s 2016 presidential nomination, outraged Big Labor early this month when he sharply criticized teacher union kingpins on national television. In response to…
Big City Union Bosses are bankrolling Mayor de Blasio’s lobbying arm, $1 million of his lobby’s $1.7 million receipts during the…
New York City’s costly, Big Labor-controlled district public schools have for years done a very poor job of educating the children of Gotham’s less affluent families. A small silver lining has been the growing, but still relatively tiny, system of…
Fewer and fewer parents are willing to put or keep their kids in Newark Public Schools (NPS), the struggling, state-administered district located in New Jersey’s largest city. As a consequence of parents’ fleeing the city, or, alternatively, putting their children…
Sylvia Bokor outlines the critical connection between the Right to Work and individual rights: The Right to Work clause came into existence in 1935, embedded in the Taft-Hartely Law. It means that (a) employees may not be forced to join a union, that (b) employers need not hire only those who agree to join a union, and (c) that employers need not fire employees for failing to join a union or pay union dues. What does this mean in dollars and cents? Consider one of the worse-case scenarios: the Nelson Index ranks New Mexico, a non-Right to Work state, below the national average. Recently, the Rio Grande Foundation published its study of the effect of Right to Work on business growth and increased personal income in New Mexico. The Foundation concluded that were New Mexico to become a Right to Work state, "[b]y 2020, New Mexico would have 42,300 more people working ... [and that] the state's personal income would be nearly $5 billion higher, and wage and salary income would be $2.2 billion higher." But why? Why does prohibiting the use of force have such a hugely beneficial effect on economic growth and prosperity? The National Institute of Labor Relations Research answers the question. Mr. Greer begins his article by correctly identifying the foundation of the Right to Work clause: "Big Labor propaganda against Right to Work legislation and laws rarely focuses on the principle at stake: freedom of association." Later he states: "... Right to Work laws are not merely or even primarily an economic development tool. Right to Work laws and legislation are really a matter of freedom, not economics." True. But go deeper still. Individual rights are the foundation of freedom. "Freedom is the absence of force." Without individual rights, freedom does not exist. To the extent one's rights are violated, to that extent is one's freedom is curtailed, ultimately to be destroyed altogether. By definition, individual rights include the assurance that no man may violate the rights of another with impunity. A culture permeated by freedom is a culture enjoying the essential condition for prosperity: protection and recognition of individual rights. Philosophically, the Right to Work clause is the recognition of man's right to think for himself, to make his own choices and decisions -- i.e., his right to life. Personal happiness fuels productivity. Prosperity results. So why do union bosses continue to block implementation of the RTW clause?
Teacher Unions Must Collect their Own Dues Governor Bob Riley speaks to a gathering of lawmakers and citizens before signing into law a series of sweeping anti-corruption reforms. Photo credit: Robin Cooper, Office of the Governor. Alabama’s News 13: “A…